Jerry Robert Farrell
By Beth Farrell
My husband, Shawn, and I were living in Seattle, WA when we found out we were expecting our first child. We already knew we wanted to go through a midwife. We found an awesome birthing center (Seattle Home Maternity) that gave us very good care until we moved to Minneapolis, at 28 weeks.
In search of a new midwife and birthing center we found Morning Star. We fell in love with the birthing rooms right away (even picked the red room that day) and also the staff. My pre-natal care was excellent. Each visit was around an hour long, viewing all possibilities of care and thoroughly talking about my health. Even when Shawn and I were settling into our new home in Indiana, the midwives were available by phone so I could talk to them about any concerns since I couldn't be there in person.
Shawn and I used natural family planning so I was totally convinced that my due date was May 22. But after our first ultrasound and talking with the midwife in Seattle the due date was determined to be May 31.
May 22 came and went with nothing, I didn't feel any changes. When May 31 came, I was feeling little crampy but no pain. Catherine said to just be patient, that Baby will come when Baby is ready (we didn't know the sex before hand). She did give me an order to get Evening Primrose Oil and to try the breast pump. We set up the next appointment for June 5. I came in still feeling kind of crampy and that feeling that would come and go. Myriah was examining my abdomen when I had that feeling and she stated that it was a surge. We were using hypnobirthing techniques, so during any of my vaginal exams I didn't want to know any numbers. But Shawn REALLY did, so Myriah and Shawn talked out of the room while I got dressed (apparently I was 2cm dilated at the time). We continued to talk about what will have to happen if I went past 10 days of due date, but Myriah just told me she was confident we wouldn't have to worry about it.
June 7 at about 12:30am I was lying in bed, unable to sleep, when I started to feel that I might pee my pants. I made it to the bathroom and had a gush of water come out. I called the on-call midwife, which was Myriah, and told her that my water had broken but I still wasn't having any steady surges. Myriah told me to get some rest because it was going to be a long hard day and to call her back once they are about 5mins apart. So I laid on the couch, because I didn't want to wake Shawn yet (he would have been WAY too excited/nervous to go back to sleep), I was able to sleep to about 5am when the surges woke me up. I started tracking the time and they were about 5-6mins apart and lasting for about a minute. I called Myriah back, she asked about the intensity of the surges, which were about 5 out of 10. She then said to just stay calm and call her back once the intensity got to an 8 or when I couldn't talk through the surges. At 6:30am I finally decided to wake Shawn, stating my water had broke and I am having surges about every 5mins. As I expected he jumped up like a bolt of lightning ready to run out the door. I remained calm and told him what Myriah had said, he calmed down a little after that. I laid on the bed relaxing as the intensity moved up to about a 6 at about noon when Myriah called me and said that I should come in so she could check me. At about 1pm we went into Morning Star, with my bag and my mother with food. While driving there I got the first feeling of pressure down low. Myriah checked me out, Shawn and Myriah when out of the room to talk. Shawn walked back in with a huge smile on his face so I figured I was moving along (I was 6cm dilated). I was admitted to the red room and we were the only ones back there, very nice. I continued to move around and drinking and eating very little. At about 4pm the pressure down low was getting to be so strong that I would involuntarily push with it, Shawn and Myriah convinced me to get into the tub to see if I would like it (I really do not like tubs). I stayed in for a while but had to get out because I just wasn't comfortable but apparently the baby really liked it because I progressed the most while in the tub. Around 9:30pm I saw Myriah and McKenna (assistant) getting the room ready for delivery, which got me really excited because I was so tired, Shawn was trying all day to get me to eat to keep my energy up but I just couldn't do it (didn't want to do it). The excitement didn't last long because I was thinking that once I saw the tackle boxes that meant the baby will be here in like 1 min, but it took longer than that.
They convinced me again to get into the tub, this time the water felt so hot (well everything seems hot, Shawn had to run back and forth cooling a washcloth for me) then Myriah "I know you do not want to be in the tub, so get out now or you will deliver in the tub." My response was "I don't care where I am as long as it is over with". She said "ok then we have to turn the warm temp up then and you can feel his head if you want." My response to that "was that is ok, I just want this over with." With a couple more surges I felt that major ring of fire in my nether region with 3 bursts of pain (the only real pain I felt the whole time, the rest of it was just extreme pressure). I looked down and saw this tiny little hand come out of the water, I grab it so tightly and pull Baby to my chest, with an explosion of tears. I looked at Shawn and he was crying just as hard as me, and then shouted "it's a boy!"
Jerry Robert was born 10:26pm; he was named after my late Grandpa Jerry, also born June 7th. After he was born everyone got me out of the tub, dried us all off and got us into bed. Shawn and I laid for about an hour with Jerry on my chest. We talked about the day and Shawn fed me the chicken pasta dinner my mom made. It is the greatest moment of my life (next to marrying Shawn).
Myriah, McKenna, and another assistant took care of everything else; all we had to do was lay in bed together. They got me cleaned up and delivered the placenta. They waited about 2 hours after he was born to do Jerry's assessment, weight and height. Then Jerry and I got back into the (clean) tub to bathe and soak my sore nether region. Then off to home where we all slept for 4 hours.
I read a lot of these birth stories before labor and they really helped me, I hope they help you. Remember, be not afraid you were born to do this.